11 Things You Need to Know on Equal Pay Day

Equal Pay Day calls attention to the persistent moral and economic injustice working women face. For a woman to earn as much as a man, she has to work a full year, plus more than a hundred extra days, all the way to April 10. The problem is even worse for women of color, LGBTQ women and part-time workers.

Here are 11 things you need to know on Equal Pay Day:

1. Equal Pay Day for women of color is even later: For black women, Equal Pay Day comes later because they are paid, on average, even less than white women. Equal Pay Day for black women is Aug. 7. For Native American women, it's Sept. 7. For Latinas, it's Nov. 1.

2. LGBTQ women face a host of related problems: A woman in a same-sex couple makes 79% of what a straight, white man makes. Additionally, they face higher rates of unemployment, discrimination and harassment on the job.

4. Fixing the wage gap will reduce poverty: The poverty rate for women would be cut in half if the wage gap were eliminated. Additionally, 25.8 million children would benefit from closing the gap.

5. Fixing the wage gap would boost the economy: Eliminating the wage gap would increase women's earnings by $512.6 billion, a 2.8% boost to the country's gross domestic product. Women are consumers and the bulk of this new income would be injected directly into the economy.

We can’t end pay discrimination and close wage gaps if employers can hide the fact they are paying women and people of color less. Tell the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to move forward on developing revised equal pay data collection.